Letter: Good Kingman ordinance protects taxpayers

Three cheers for the Kingman City Council in opposing Angle Homes, which wants our citizens and taxpayers to take on more of the risks for his new developments.

A 2014 ordinance did away with escrows as assurance for improvements.

As an attorney I can tell you escrows can be successfully closed, meaning the sale and funding of homes completed, or the escrows can be cancelled for all sorts of reasons.

All new bond issues or financing have costs, but why should the Kingman taxpayer take an added risk, pay for improvements, only to see a partial ghost town after we built roads, extended water and waste utilities?

The council is wise to keep the ordinance as “there were concerns that there is no cash associated with this particular assurance method, and therefore no means for the city to pay for uncompleted improvements should a developer fail to perform construction,” as stated on the city council agenda.